On the antiquity and status of the Spalacidae, new data from the late Eocene of south-East Serbia
de Bruijn, Hans; Marković, Zoran; Wessels, Wilma; van de Weerd, Andrew A.
(2023) Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, volume 103, issue 2, pp. 433 - 445
(Article)
Abstract
A new blind mole-rat species Debruijnia tintinnabulus nov. sp. is described from the late Eocene of south east Serbia. This find is approximately 10 Ma older than the hitherto oldest records of Spalacidae Vetusspalax and Pannoniamys, both from the late Oligocene of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. The antiquity of
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the new species (~34 Ma) is in accordance with recent genetically based age estimates of Spalacidae as an early branch of the Supramyomorpha. A review of the fossil record shows that the Spalacidae are probably not closely related to the Rhizomyinae and Myospalacinae. The spalacid finds from the Paleogene of the Balkans and the Neogene of Anatolia suggests that the family underwent a radiation during the Oligocene involving Debruijnia, Vetusspalax, Pannoniamys and Heramys. During the middle and late Miocene Heramys evolved into a large number of species, here all tentatively allocated to Pliospalax.
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Keywords: Balkans, Burrowing rodents, Myospalacinae, New species, Phylogeny, Rhizomyinae, Spalacidae, Tachyoryctoidinae, Global and Planetary Change, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Ecology, Geology, Palaeontology
ISSN: 1867-1594
Publisher: Springer Verlag
Note: Funding Information: Hans de Bruijn died when the manuscript of this paper was almost finished. The remaining authors are indebted to his stimulating ideas and editing skills, that endured even during the last months of his life. The discovery of fossil small mammals in the Paleogene of Serbia is for a major part the merit of Miloš Milivojević of the Natural History Museum in Belgrade. We gratefully acknowledge the facilities offered during our fieldwork by Jovan Stojanović and the staff of motel Nina (Babušnica) and by Mile Ilić at the premises of the old mill of Ljuberađa. The SEM pictures of the cheek teeth have been made by Tilly Bouten, Utrecht University. The financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the ‘Hans de Bruijn’ Foundation and the university of Utrecht is gratefully acknowledged. The paper benefited from the constructive comments of Jan van Dam (Utrecht University) and reviewers Helder Gomes Rodrigues (Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris) and Paloma López-Guerrero (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). Funding Information: Hans de Bruijn died when the manuscript of this paper was almost finished. The remaining authors are indebted to his stimulating ideas and editing skills, that endured even during the last months of his life. The discovery of fossil small mammals in the Paleogene of Serbia is for a major part the merit of Miloš Milivojević of the Natural History Museum in Belgrade. We gratefully acknowledge the facilities offered during our fieldwork by Jovan Stojanović and the staff of motel Nina (Babušnica) and by Mile Ilić at the premises of the old mill of Ljuberađa. The SEM pictures of the cheek teeth have been made by Tilly Bouten, Utrecht University. The financial support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the ‘Hans de Bruijn’ Foundation and the university of Utrecht is gratefully acknowledged. The paper benefited from the constructive comments of Jan van Dam (Utrecht University) and reviewers Helder Gomes Rodrigues (Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris) and Paloma López-Guerrero (Naturhistorisches Museum Wien). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
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